Isaiah 55:10-13
55:10 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
55:11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
55:12 For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
55:13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the LORD for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
Psalm 65: 9-13
65:9 You visit the earth and water it, you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide the people with grain, for so you have prepared it.
65:10 You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth.
65:11 You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with richness.
65:12 The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy,
65:13 the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
13:1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea.
13:2 Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach.
13:3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow.
13:4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up.
13:5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil.
13:6 But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away.
13:7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.
13:8 Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
13:9 Let anyone with ears listen!”
13:18 “Hear then the parable of the sower.
13:19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path.
13:20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;
13:21 yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away.
13:22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing.
13:23 But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
In the Name of the Father & of the Son & of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
Once again, just like in last Sunday’s gospel, & again in the next, & the next after, the role of Jesus as teacher is emphasized in the Gospel of Matthew. Today’s agricultural tale is the first of seven consecutive (13:24,31,33,44,45.47,53) parables, the well-known parable of the sower and the seed.
And Jesus the Teacher again (11:15) asks “Are you listening? Really listening to me?” (13:9). Notice Jesus emphatically prefaces this parable with a single imperative “Listen!” (13:3). Also notice the explanation (13:9 ) begins with the same greek word
ἀκούω (akouō)
the future active, a middle deponent, ἀκούσομαι, to hear; to hearken, listen to, Mk. 4:3; Lk. 19:48; to heed, obey, Mt. 18:15; Acts 4:19; to understand.ἀκούω “Listen”,” hear”, “hearken”, then appears in each of verses 13:19,20,22,23. In the parable’s explanation each of the four seed types hears the word, but then, things go awry! There is nothing wrong with their auditory system, everything functions, but there is a gap in comprehension. There is no consequence. They don’t act as if they’ve heard at all
(-because they haven’t!)
The missing verses in the middle of today’s reading then apply here:
10 The disciples came up and asked, “Why do you tell stories?”
11-15 He replied, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn’t been given to them. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That’s why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they’re blue in the face and not get it. I don’t want Isaiah’s forecast repeated all over again:
Your ears are open but you don’t hear a thing.
Your eyes are awake but you don’t see a thing.
The people are blockheads!
They stick their fingers in their ears
so they won’t have to listen;
They screw their eyes shut
so they won’t have to look,
so they won’t have to deal with me face-to-face
and let me heal them.
16-17 “But you have God-blessed eyes—eyes that see! And God-blessed ears—ears that hear! A lot of people, prophets and humble believers among them, would have given anything to see what you are seeing, to hear what you are hearing, but never had the chance.
Understanding,
συνίημι (syniēmi)
to comprehend thoroughly, Mt. 13:51; Lk. 2:50; 18:34; 24:45; to perceive clearly, Mt. 16:12; 17:13; Acts 7:25; Rom. 15:21; Eph. 5:17; absol. to be well judging, sensible, 2 Cor. 10:12; to be spiritually intelligent, Mt. 13:13, 14, 15; Acts 28:26, 27; to be wise, Rom. 3:11
Understanding = “Really listening”, bridges the gap, & Jesus the teacher frequently checks in to make sure his disciples get it; 13:51 Jesus asked, “Are you starting to get a handle on all this?” They answered, “Yes.”
Hearing & not understanding is an opportunity effected by distraction(s). And we all well know they are plentifully available. Trouble comes “because of the word” exposing shallowness (13:21). This anxiety is expressed in attempts to secure life without reference to God. The gospel does require freedom from whatever hinders obedience. Our security needs to lie elsewhere. Discipleship, however, is more than auditory functionalism or cognitive learning or even overcoming a gap in knowledge; it is the adoption of a way of life, an apprenticeship, a discipline. And this way of life is expressed in terms of doing and being something in relation to Jesus, the Teacher. According to the explanation proffered understanding/comprehension/”getting it” or the lack thereof has something to do with the heart (13:19). We are challenged afresh to continue to live on the basis of God’s reign in the midst of various difficulties until its full purposes are accomplished. Listening, hearkening, has to do with the heart. We are easily complicitly distracted. There is lots of distracting noise. Listening presumes shutting up. Intentionally making room for & focusing instead on the radically transformative “word of the kingdom”. Which in contrast to being consumed, withering or choked out is quickening & fecund.
& depth of understanding, subsequently, manifest itself in fecundity.
Ultimately, as Jesus specifically indicates, (13:3,18), this is a story about the Sower. Interestingly, while he refers to the parable as “the parable of the Sower,” the explanation does not focus on the sower. It does not even identify the sower explicitly.Yet in identifying the seed as “the word of the kingdom” (13:18), Jesus offers a clear hint who the Sower is. The Sower is generous, profligate, even. The sower plants in faith not knowing what the yield may be. We can’t imagine so wantonly throwing seed amongst rocks and thorns and pathways. Jesus means to scandalize us. Just what kind of Sower sows with such abandoned excess, such uninhibited extravagance? This is a story about the ridiculously lavish character of God.
Some patches of good rich soil receive the grace the Sower scatters with such childlike playful abandon. And in turn produce a harvest that reflects the Divine extravagance; 30, 60 & 100fold. The yield of the seeds that fell into the good soil in this example is noteworthy. The increases that Jesus describes are supernatural. Any farmer or sower would be pleased with these outcomes. Overflowing, plenteous grace for all.
We can find examples of each kind of response to the word in Matthew’s Gospel. There are many in Matthew’s story who “hear the word of the kingdom and do not understand” (3:19), including the religious leaders who are antagonistic to Jesus’ ministry from the beginning. The crowds respond positively to Jesus, especially to his miracles of healing (9:8; 15:31; 21:8-9), yet turn against Jesus at the end and demand his crucifixion (27:15-23), leaving us to wonder whether they ever truly understood.
The disciples themselves might be included among those who fall away “when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word” (3:21; cf. 26:56b, 69-75). And the rich young man unable to part with his possessions (19:16-22) provides a stunning example of “one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing” (3:22).
What about the good soil? Who are those “who hear the word and understand it, who indeed bear fruit” and yield an abundant harvest (13:23)? In Matthew’s story it seems they are the least likely ones. Jesus tells the chief priests and elders, “the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you” (21:31-32). In the parable of the sheep and the goats, the righteous bear fruit by serving the “least of these,” and even they are surprised to find that they have been serving Jesus (25:34-40). What about the disciples? Will they ever bear fruit? After telling several more parables, Jesus asks them, “Have you understood all this?” They confidently answer, “Yes” (13:51). Yet subsequent events will reveal how little they truly understand (16:21-23; 20:20-28) and how quickly they will desert Jesus to save their own skins (26:56b, 69-75). But Jesus faithfully consistently invests in disciples who look similarly unpromising. He squanders his time with tax collectors and sinners, with lepers, the demon-possessed, and all manner of outcasts. Yet he promises that his profligate sowing of the word will produce an abundant harvest. It is that the sower keeps sowing generously, extravagantly, even in the least promising places. Jesus’ investment in his disciples shows that he simply will not give up on them, in spite of their many failings. We trust that he will not give up on us either, but will keep working on whatever is hardened, rocky, or thorny within and among us. Jesus’ approach to mission is quite at odds with our play-it-safe instincts. He gives us freedom to take risks for the sake of the gospel. He endorses extravagant generosity in sowing the word, even in perilous places. Though we may wonder about the wisdom or efficiency of his methods, Jesus promises that the end result will be a bumper crop.
Lastly, the thorns, the rocks, the pathways, the birds are not as we might like “others” with us nice Christians as the fertile soil. We should recognize a bit of ourselves in all four seedbeds. It is precisely you & I who embody the infertility, the leaving to chance, the impossibly stubborn thorns, the immutable rocks, the shallow soil, the unprotected ground, the carelessly trodden pathways wide open for winged robbers and burrowing thieves.
Chapter 13, which opens with the parable of the sower, addresses the issue of how is it that so many in Israel have rejected the Messiah. How did his own receive him not? . It supplies a sort of mini theodicy–not a solution to the problem of evil in general but a solution to the rejection of Jesus in particular. The chapter teaches that there can be different responses to one and the same message (13:1-23), that the devil works in human hearts (13:24-30), and that all will be well in the end (13:31-33, 36-43, 47-50). Read in its larger context, the whole chapter grapples with the Messiah’s unexpected reception, or rather lack thereof.
And so the invitation is still offered to us, “Let anyone with ears listen!”
but are we hearkening?
In the Name of the Father & of the Son & of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
Common Praise 478
Almighty God, your word is cast like seed upon the ground, /now let the dew of heaven descend and righteous fruits abound.
Let not our selfishness and hate this holy seed remove, /but let it root in every heart to bring forth fruits of love.
Let not the world’s deceitful cares the rising plant destroy, /but let it yield a hundredhold the fruits of peace and joy.
Oft as the precious seed is sown,your quick’ning grace bestow,
that all whose souls the truth receive, its saving pow’r may know.
John Cawood 1775-1852
Matthew 13 The Message
A Harvest Story
13 1-3 At about that same time Jesus left the house and sat on the beach. In no time at all a crowd gathered along the shoreline, forcing him to get into a boat. Using the boat as a pulpit, he addressed his congregation, telling stories.
3-8 “What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn’t put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. Some fell on good earth, and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.
9 “Are you listening to this? Really listening?”
Why Tell Stories?
10 The disciples came up and asked, “Why do you tell stories?”11-15 He replied, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn’t been given to them. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That’s why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they’re blue in the face and not get it. I don’t want Isaiah’s forecast repeated all over again:Your ears are open but you don’t hear a thing.
Your eyes are awake but you don’t see a thing.
The people are blockheads!
They stick their fingers in their ears
so they won’t have to listen;
They screw their eyes shut
so they won’t have to look,
so they won’t have to deal with me face-to-face
and let me heal them.16-17 “But you have God-blessed eyes—eyes that see! And God-blessed ears—ears that hear! A lot of people, prophets and humble believers among them, would have given anything to see what you are seeing, to hear what you are hearing, but never had the chance.The Meaning of the Harvest Story18-19 “Study this story of the farmer planting seed. When anyone hears news of the kingdom and doesn’t take it in, it just remains on the surface, and so the Evil One comes along and plucks it right out of that person’s heart. This is the seed the farmer scatters on the road.20-21 “The seed cast in the gravel—this is the person who hears and instantly responds with enthusiasm. But there is no soil of character, and so when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it.22 “The seed cast in the weeds is the person who hears the kingdom news, but weeds of worry and illusions about getting more and wanting everything under the sun strangle what was heard, and nothing comes of it.23 “The seed cast on good earth is the person who hears and takes in the News, and then produces a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.”
brian